Save the Last Dance for Me
by Kimmzie
Summary: The tendrils of hundreds of timelines were restored to live their lives. Time clicked on in peaceful circles around him, ticking, beating away with his hearts. There was too much: going, flowing, ebbing, and ticking away. Always changing, never stopping. Run! Always running. Rose shows the Doctor he needs a hand to hold.


Save the Last Dance

Kimmzie

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor who

Author's Note: This is an expanded version of a flashback from Flux. Read, Review and Enjoy

He wandered the dark halls of the TARDIS. The steps of his victory march got heavy and slower; his elation dissipated into the air with each breath. It had been such a day. He had one day. "Just give me one day like this!"

His boots were barely moving now. "Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once everybody lives!" The TARDIS tried to hum brightly in his mind. The tendrils of hundreds of timelines were restored to live their lives. Time clicked on in peaceful circles around him, ticking, beating away with his hearts. There was too much: going, flowing, ebbing, and ticking away. Always changing, never stopping. Run! Always running.

However, tonight he had remembered to dance. Rose's hand had caressed his gently in a spin. Her turn was more important than the rotation of the stars. Her golden hair spun in circles around the console room.

Jack had tried to cut in a few times. His American grin plastered on his face as he, tried to sway the girl into a swing. Somehow, Rose's hand always found the Doctor's leather clad back, shoulder, arm, and ultimately his hand.

Their bodies had been close as he pulled her in for a tango.

T-A-N-G-O. He stepped with her, effortlessly letting their hips touch. Closer, she needed to come in closer. Mold into him. Be with him. He pushed her forward for a side step. Oh, there was a glorious slow burning building into something new. Another dip, lower this time. Her flexible back almost let the tips of her hair touch the grating.

Ultimately, the tangy music of the accordion stopped. Rose was left grinding into his hips, breathless. She looked up at him with half-lidded eyes laughing. The Doctor looked down at her and smiled. He abruptly turned away, lest he burn her. Everything he touches burns. Her body was heat.

The music gave him a pretense. But he didn't dance every day. He had one day.

"Doctor?" Rose panted.

"Well now, look at the time. Jack is already gone away. I believe it's time to call it in." Rose hid a yawn beneath her hand.

"I can do a few more." She smiled, shaking her hips. Her hands would eventually crack and blister under his touch. She would burn. Coward every time.

Rose rolled around restlessly and kicked off the heavy, pink comforter and sheets that were weighing her down. She sat up breathless and looked around. There was a strange music permeating the room. It was beautiful and sad. It sounded like a string quartet. She passed her hand through the empty air and it was vibrating. She shivered off some goose bumps. Something was tugging on her hand. "Run!" the air whispered.

Without hindrance, or heed, or a destination. She grabbed a hoodie and some shoes and set out. The music set a higher tempo and her heartbeat acted as a metronome. Her footsteps wandered aimlessly through the endless halls.

"Run!" the voice was louder.

The music softened and she turned her head to the wall of the corridor.

"Rose?" a hoarse voice asked, she tried to keep calm when she met his dark, icy eyes.

"Doctor?" Rose answered the Time Lord, and joined him against the wall. He was silent and looking off into the distance. "Whatcha doing here?" she tried to ask, lightly. He collapsed further into the wall.

"Just this once everybody lived. Unfortunately, it won't always be that way. It hasn't been like this for a very long time. It won't happen again anytime soon." His voice was a whisper. She wasn't used to that.

"We even danced." She smiled and found his hand and drew small circles with her thumb. "We can dance, win, and celebrate again."

"I don't remember how to dance every day, Rose. " He looked at her with his brow drawn.

"Then you just need a partner to take the lead." She got up dusted off her pants and pulled his arm gently. "Can't you hear the music? It's like something classical with violins and stuff'." The Doctor slowly got up and placed a hand on her waist as he quirked a brow.

"You can hear the music." It was a question posed as a statement.

"Never mind that now Doctor," she paused. "I want to dance and the Lady wants to lead." She started to step them into a waltz. The sides of the Doctors lips twitched upwards as he got dragged along the hallway.

The Doctor's smile grew with each step. The horrors of his haunted, bleeding heart were slowly being banished with the beat. Rose didn't seem to be weighed down. She just kept dragging him along for the ride with a cheeky smile. Her tongue would peek out from the corner of her mouth when she concentrated on a more difficult step.

"Oi, keep up Mr. Time Lord. For someone that is always running you need to catch up to me for once." She laughed and moved closer as the form of the dance deemed it necessary. They were a breath apart as she began to sway her hips. It was two steps forward, and Rose laced her fingers around his head forming a crown. Now it was, two steps back. Their bodies swiveled in quick turns to fit in the narrow corridor.

As the dance ended the Doctor silently told the TARDIS to stop it. "The music stopped," Rose said looking around. "I was just getting' my steps back. I was a bit rusty." She slowly stepped back and he instantly missed the body heat.

"You were fantastic," he replied automatically. He stepped back as she tried to return to her former spot.

"Why do you always hide it? The Oncoming Storm and all of that? You are so scared of losing things again that you just push it all away. You run which is brilliant. You only show it when you're backed against the corner and you think you'll lose."

"I run, Rose Tyler. Always running because around me people burn and suffer. I save some, but I lose so many…I have all of time and space. I will always see too much, live too long," he said his voice steadily rising.

Rose realized she was trapped between the wall and a frustrated Time Lord. She averted her eyes to the floor and he exhaled. "What do you do when things turn to rubble and dust in front of you? Curse of the Time Lords," he whispered in spite. Rose cringed as he started to move away.

"Now in the present, this very moment you grab someone's hand and dance or run in a basement. Sometimes, you need someone to lead you or stop you. On some days, you need to show a shop girl the Universe. You make her feel the rotation of the Earth and Universe. You show her how fantastic and how much more there is." She spread out her arms. "Doctor, sometimes you just need a hand to hold." She finally met his eyes and he was breathless.

"Rose," he exhaled. "I just cant."

"No." The statement sent a shiver down the Time Lord's spine. "No, you can. You just won't. Coward, that's what you are. We've been dancing around in circles and now you're about to run. Where are you going to run off to Doctor? I'm not going anywhere. Unless," she trailed off.

"Unless?" the Doctor questioned, cautiously.

"Unless, you want me to go. " She started to walk away and felt a stiff tug to her arm.

"No," he said with an exhale, as his arms pulled her back into his frame. "Not when there is so much to show the shop girl, the ap-… 21st-century human, those titles don't matter. I need to show you, Rose, everything I have to offer. I need to see the Universe with younger eyes and see how fantastic it all can be. I don't need a hand to hold. I need your hand. Now, run for your life." He stepped away and headed off down the corridor. "I need to run with you, Rose Tyler."

The Doctor made it to the console room before Rose. He was already pressing buttons and grinning at the Time Rotor as it started to grind away, when Rose breathlessly made it to the room.

"You're going to have to work on more of that cardio, Ms. Tyler," he replied to her harsh exhale.

"Not all of us can have respiratory bypass," she huffed back.

"Where are we off to in such a hurry?" she asked as he continued to spin around the console. The TARDIS shook as he pressed a few buttons. They landed with a sort of hurried lurch.

"And we are here," he replied, grinning from ear to ear, no pun intended.

"That is?" Rose leaned against the jumper seat.

"Well, you can't go out in that, with your human circulatory system and metabolic processes. Go and change." He shooed her off while he looked at the screen.

Was it business as usual? Rose wondered to herself as she went to on a mission for her mysterious wardrobe change. Once she happened upon it spread out neatly in her made up bed, she frowned inwardly. Back to normal and basics. She picked up what seemed to be futuristic long underwear with slight disdain. At least it was pink.

A few minutes later, she clunked her way back to the console room. Her shoes had some odd metal soles that stuck to the floor. Her movement was limited due to the heavy down jacket she wore. She also had pink sunglasses/ goggles on. She raised the glasses as she saw the Doctor sporting a similar jacket over his leather.

"You know, I could move better in the corsets than this getup," she said with a smirk.

"You look lovely," he bowed his head.

"For a…"

"For an anything, something, or whatever you are, Rose Tyler." He held out his hand and she held out her be-mittened hand. "Get ready for a bit of a gust," he warned as he led her to the door. "I let down the force field around the perimeter so you could feel it."

The door was open a sliver and she felt it. The cold stole the air from her lungs and the Doctor had to drag her out. Her face burned as the wind permeated her dermis and colored it her favorite color. She squinted her eyes behind the lenses as a hot, bright light burned her world into darkness.

"Just give it a moment," the Doctor's voice urged her as he led her blindly forward. Her shoes stuck to the ground as she did small steps. She heard a buzz coming off her lenses. "There now, the lenses should be adjusted, didn't think it would take that long."

Rose's hazel eyes blinked cautiously open and she couldn't help but tilt her head up. There was a forty-foot wave arcing gracefully over her head. She could see the foam bubbling under a clear sheet of ice. If she looked hard enough she could see the sea foam slowly move in a swirling current but the structure stayed in place. Her eyes darted all over around; it was just glistening ice. She was on an ocean mid-storm that was frozen.

"It's called Woman Wept. The whole planet is an made up of an ocean that got frozen a few millennia ago. It seems to be starting to thaw."

"It's beautiful," she stammered.

"It's a casualty of the Time War."

"The whole planet?" Rose asked looking back at the Doctor. His eyes were sharper blue than the storm beneath her feet.

"There are still many echoes of the damage… all throughout time and space. I couldn't save the Time Lords. I couldn't save countless lives, billions of lives, Rose. There is a whole planet dead, frozen below your feet because of me. What I've done."

"And?" Rose asked.

"And?" he replied.

"And what about all the people you have saved? You saved me." She wrapped her arms around herself as the wind got brisker. She could see him folding in upon himself again for a moment. Her heart couldn't even sink into the ocean. "Why are we here?" she said so softly the wind stole her words.

He straightened and looked at her with dark horrifyingly, beautiful eyes.

"I've shown the shop girl horrors and wonders. You've seen some of the echoes of my past. Now, you said you wanted more. This is more."

It was then that Rose Tyler knew that she was going to run with the Doctor forever.


End file.
